Cincinnati Attorney Becomes State Bar’s President-Elect

May 15, 2008

Cincinnati attorney Barbara J. Howard today became the Ohio State Bar Association’s (OSBA) president-elect at the Association’s Annual Convention in Columbus. Howard will take office as president of the OSBA on July 1, 2009.

Howard, an OSBA-Certified Family Relations Law Specialist with Collaborative Law certification, has provided many years of service to the Ohio bar. She has served on the OSBA Board of Governors since 2005, and currently chairs the Government Affairs Committee. She has also served on the OSBA Council of Delegates since 1985, is a past chair of the OSBA Section on Women in the Profession, a former member of the Ohio Lawyer Board of Editors, and a current member of the OSBA Family Law Committee (and the Spousal Support Subcommittee). She was a member of the Ohio State Bar Foundation (OSBF) Class in 1998 and served on that organization’s Board of Trustees from 1999 to 2003. In addition, she has served on the Ohio Lawyers Assistance Program Board of Trustees since 2005, and was a member of the Bench-Bar Planning Committee in 2000, 2002 and 2004.

Also active in her local community’s bar activities, Howard is a past president of the Cincinnati Bar Association (CBA), a member of the CBA’s Domestic Relations Committee, and current member of the Cincinnati Academy of Leadership for Lawyers Steering Committee, having served as chair of the Academy from 2000 to 2002. On the national level, Howard has served as an OSBA delegate to the American Bar Association (ABA) House of Delegates since 1986 and as a member of the ABA Journal Board of Editors since 2005. She also serves on the ABA’s House Committee on Rules & Calendar and chaired the ABA/University of Baltimore Summit on Unified Family Courts in 2007. Other bar-related activities include membership on the National Council of Bar Presidents Executive Committee and the Cincinnati Academy of Collaborative Professionals; service as a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation since 1991; service on the Cincinnati Bar Foundation Board of Trustees since 2004; and member and past president (1991 – 1994) of the Volunteer Lawyers for the Poor Foundation Board of Trustees since 1986.

In the community, Howard has served on the Xavier University Board of Trustees since 1995, and as chair of its Academic Affairs Committee since 2006. She is also a past president of the Xavier University National Alumni Association, a current member of the Cincinnati Union Bethel Board of Trustees, the Executive Committee of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio, the Athenaeum of Ohio Board of Trustees, the University of Cincinnati College of Law Board of Visitors, and the Corporate Guild Steering Committee of Dress for Success Cincinnati.

Howard earned her undergraduate degree in Political Science from Xavier University in 1976 and her law degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 1979. Prior to starting her own firm, Barbara J. Howard Co., LPA, in 1996, she was associated with the Cincinnati firm of Beckman, Weil, Shepardson (formerly Beckman, Lavercombe, Fox and Weil). She lives in Cincinnati with her husband, Mike Belmont.

The Ohio State Bar Association, founded in 1880, is a voluntary association representing approximately 25,000 members of the bench and bar of Ohio as well as nearly 4,000 legal assistants and law students. Through its activities and the activities of its related organizations, the OSBA serves both its members and the public by promoting the highest standards in the practice of law and the administration of justice.